The world in 2016: how much do you know? – quiz

A view of the bustling Oluwole market in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city. What price will developing countries pay for Brexit? Photograph: Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters

1. According to economic experts, Brexit could cost the world's poorest countries how much?

   1. More than £3.5bn a year

   2. More than £320m a year

   3. More than £675m a year

   4. More than £5bn a year

2. 

   Women's rights activists fear Donald Trump's US election victory could lead to the reinstatement of the “global gag” rule. What does the rule stipulate?

   1. That no US media outlet should be permitted to report on foreign affairs without official White House approval

   2. That American women in overseas territories should not express views perceived as detrimental to the aims and values of the US government

   3. That no one, anywhere in the world, should be allowed to mention Hillary Clinton

   4. That federal funds cannot be used to support overseas family planning organisations that offer or provide information about abortions

3. According to the UN, if the average family size were reduced by one child, projected global population growth would be reduced by how many people by 2030?

   1. 1 billion

   2. 1.1 billion

   3. 1.2 billion

   4. 1.3 billion

4. 

   In October, which fictional character became an honorary UN ambassador for the empowerment of women and girls?

   1. Elsa from Frozen

   2. Katniss Everdeen

   3. Supergirl

   4. Wonder Woman

5. Which of the following human rights activists was killed in 2016?

   1. Berta Cáceres

   2. Sikhosiphi “Bazooka” Rhadebe

   3. Maricela Tombé

   4. All of the above

6. 

   In October, who was named as the next secretary general of the UN?

   1. Arnold Schwarzenegger

   2. Helen Clark

   3. Vuk Jeremić

   4. António Guterres

7. Which of the following countries was declared malaria-free by the World Health Organisation in September?

   1. India

   2. Sri Lanka

   3. Myanmar

   4. Cambodia

8. 

   In January, a study said more people now die from air pollution than which of the following two factors combined?

   1. Polio and malaria

   2. Heart disease and stroke

   3. Malaria and HIV

   4. Road traffic accidents and cancer

9. In June, the UN reported that a record number of people were forced from their homes by war and persecution in 2015. What was the figure?

   1. 115 million

   2. 35 million

   3. 48 million

   4. 65 million

10. 

    In July, who replaced Justine Greening as British secretary of state for development?

    1. Louise Mensch

    2. Boris Johnson

    3. Priti Patel

    4. Lynne Featherstone

Solutions

1:B - Writing in a series of essays published by the Overseas Development Institute and the UK Trade Policy Observatory, economists warned in September that low-income countries could lose more than £320m annually if existing trade agreements with the UK market are not maintained., 2:D - Introduced under Ronald Reagan in 1984 and overturned in the early days of Barack Obama's presidency, the “global gag” rule is an executive order prohibiting the use of US foreign aid to support organisations providing abortion-related services., 3:A - In March, Jagdish Upadhyay of the UN Population Fund said: “If by 2030 the average family size is just one child fewer, then by 2030 the world population is estimated to be approximately 8 billion rather than 9 billion.”, 4:D - In October, to the dismay of women's rights activists and many UN staff, Wonder Woman became a UN honorary ambassador for the empowerment of women and girls. The Amazonian super heroine was dropped from the role less than two months later., 5:D - Almost two decades on from the 20th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, they face greater danger than ever. Tombé, a peasant leader in Colombia's Cauca province, was gunned down in February. The same fate befell South African activist Rhadebe the following month; also in March, Honduran environmental campaigner Cáceres was murdered for opposing a hydroelectric project. , 6:D - The former Portuguese prime minister, who was UN high commissioner for refugees for a decade, will replace Ban Ki-moon at the UN helm in January 2017., 7:B - By targeting the mosquito-borne parasite that causes malaria, rather than focusing solely on the insects themselves, Sri Lanka – once among the worst affected countries in the world – has effected a remarkable turnaround in its battle against the disease., 8:C - A study in the journal Nature, led by Johannes Lelieveld, director of the Max Planck Institute for chemistry in Germany, said more people now die from air pollution than malaria and HIV combined. Among the countries found to be worst affected were China, where pollution claims 1.4m lives a year, and India, with 650,000 deaths annually., 9:D - A record 65 million men, women and children were forced from their homes by war and persecution, leaving one in every 113 people a refugee, internally displaced or seeking asylum by the end of 2015, according to the UNHCR., 10:C - Patel became secretary of state for international development following Theresa May’s appointment as prime minister, with Greening given the role of education secretary.

Scores